Recently, a poster at StackExchange’s Latin site mentioned that Wheelock’s new edition has quite a few mistakes. He gives on example: it introduces eiscum, which doesn’t exist in Latin (verified by a PHI search, of course).
Unfortunately, that was the end of the examples. I’ve only ever used and taught from the 6th edition. Does anyone know of any more mistakes introduced in the 7th? What about those not corrected in the 7th?
Does Wheelock’s 7th edition actually use *eīscum somewhere, or is the “introduction” a reference to chapter XI?
In chapter XI, on page 88, “is” is introduced as a personal pronoun, in the same category as the first- and second-person pronouns. Then, on page 89, it is stated that cum can be suffixed to the ablative of the personal pronouns. This leads to the reader forming the erroneous conclusion that *eīscum would be a valid form.
So it appears to me that chapter XI is poorly written, with “is” being categorized according to its English translation rather than the Latin grammar.
“is” can be translated into “he” in English, but shouldn’t be placed in the same class as ego, tū, nōs and vōs.
Gildersleeve and Lodge classifies “is” as a determinative pronoun in the same category as īdem (is + dem) and ipse (perhaps is + pse). So according to Gildersleeve and Lodge, both personal and demonstrative are incorrect categories for “is”.
Yes, Wheelock’s 7th edition does actually use eiscum, in Chapter 13 translation exercise 13:
Me cum istis et capite eorum non iungam, nec tu autem te eiscum iungere debes.
The classification of these pronouns can be subjective, but Allen and Greenough classify all of them (hic, ille, is, etc.) as demonstrative. Regardless of the classification, though, the form is a mistake.
Thanks for pointing that out. I’m a little surprised but there it is.
Yes, Allen & Greenough’s classification differs a bit from Gildersleeve & Lodge’s, but I agree a mistake.
I don’t have the 6th edition of Wheelock’s. Can you see any difference in the explanation of (is,ea,id) between the 6th and 7th editions?
Finally checked (6th edition stays at the office). It’s the same language, which can bring about the same confusion, but the 6th edition lacks that example sentence with the error.